Post navigation

How Facebook is Killing Comedy

Funny or Die Hit With Layoffs

An important article on comedy website Splitsider.com, analyses how Facebook is destroying comedy sites. The article charges Facebook with running a “payola scam” and that they have re-invented the web by designing a “centrally designed internet” that serves to make profit for FB but there is actually no money for developers of content and the creative folks who are actually making funny content. Below is a clip from this article, the link to read the entire article on Splitsider follows the clip:

Last month, in its second round of layoffs in as many years, comedy hub Funny or Die reportedly eliminated its entire editorial team following a trend of comedy websites scaling back, shutting down, or restructuring their business model away from original online content.

Hours after CEO Mike Farah delivered the news via an internal memo, Matt Klinman took to Twitter, writing, “Mark Zuckerberg just walked into Funny or Die and laid off all my friends.” It was a strong sentiment for the longtime comedy creator, who started out at UCB and The Onion before launching Pitch, the Funny or Die-incubated joke-writing app, in 2017.

But Klinman explained in a thread: “There is simply no money in making comedy online anymore. Facebook has completely destroyed independent digital comedy and we need to fucking talk about it.”

We’re not sure about you, but that certainly piqued our interest. We sat down with Klinman to fucking talk about it (and just a note–these opinions are his, and he’s speaking for himself and not on behalf of Funny or Die).